Erin Brockovich Sequel in the Works: Hinkley Still Scene of Crime, PG&E Still Bad Guy

By Simone Wilson Wed., Mar. 9 2011 at 10:05 AM

Erin Brockovich: Back in action

Looks like Pacific Gas & Electric is up to its usual tricks out in Hinkley, handing out swimming-pools worth of bottled water, buying up seemingly useless land in the middle of nowhere and causing horses to drop dead where they stand. Who you gonna call? Only the No. 1 girl power-house on HBO daytime!

The Environmental Working Group dropped an evidence bomb in December:

Chromium-6 levels in Riverside tap water were still the third highest of any city in the U.S. -- and that's not to speak of outlying tumbleweed towns like Hinkley.

The study apparently set OG health lawyer Erin Brockovich's gears to turning. According to the Associated Press, the real-live Brockovich will be attending a real-live Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board meeting out in the desert today, after speaking with the very same Roberta Walker who, in the original lawsuit's movie adaptation, "weeps with joy as she's handed her portion of a historic $333 million settlement between residents of this small desert town and the utility that poisoned their drinking water."

In December, when the new study dropped, Brockovich was already seething:

"It is sometimes difficult to understand why I still have to warn the public about the presence of hexavalent chromium in drinking water 23 years after my colleagues and I first sounded the alarm," said Brockovich. "This report underscores, in fairly stark terms, the health risks that millions of Americans still face because of water contamination."

Walker and family, too attached to desert life to leave completely, moved four miles away from the PG&E plant, thinking that'd be enough to buffer the toxic plume of chromium-6. However -- while PG&E only reports a two-mile plume -- Brockovich and L.A. cohort Bob Bowcock think their new tests show "the contaminated area is twice as big as the utility's estimates."

Which would explain the dead horse.

Even in the safety of Google satellite, this thing makes us cower in fear:

Google Maps

We'll update with Brockovich's big announcement out in the boonies today. As for you, Julia: Break out the push-up bras and Independent Woman run-ons, because it's evil corporation-bashin' time.

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

Tags:

cancer, carcinogens, chromium-6, Environmental Protection Agency, Erin Brockovich, Hinkley, Julia Roberts, Riverside, water pollution, water quality

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Ropnwidow

I have lived in Riverside County for 25 years and I can't remember ever having drinkable water, ever. I was pregnant or nursing for 10 years, so I didn't go near it and now it just never looks drinkable. It's either cloudy whitish or has floaty things in it or the thinks that sink after your ice cubes melt, it's even been a rust color a time or two. The city has always had some excuse like someone hit a fire hydrant and they are working on the lines, but that's no excuse for anyone.

Then 2 years ago, my neighbor 2 houses down, their son who was 18 come down with cancer, a non lympohoma type, he recovered for now. Then last year my next door neighbors son, also 18 was diagnosed with some type of cancer. Both boys same age range, both have lived here their entire lives just seems kind of scary. We live across town from the Wyle Lab in Norco, CA, and they used to test all kinds of crud for the government there. It sits right above the high school up on a hill, so everything runs down to the people here. Oh they say they have tested and tested the land and its all good, but the people that live here in this little town are getting more cases of cancer than normal. There property values are dropping or not worth much to start off, so who wants to live in their homes.

So if we are really in trouble where do we go to find out the TRUTH in words the common citizen can understand?